Dave Gavin Welcome, who was booked to leave on a flight to New York yesterday morning, was hours later sentenced to a four year jail term after pleading guilty to attempting to smuggle cocaine out of the country.
Welcome, 42, of 655 East Ruimveldt, a seaman, admitted to having in his possession 2.67 kilogrammes of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, when he appeared before Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry.
“I take a chance for the sake of me family, because I de going through some financial difficulties. I never think that I woulda get ketch, but it didn’t succeed,” Welcome told the court before sentencing, which was done in the presence of his wife and other family members at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
The drug bust was made around 4am, when Welcome was about to board a Caribbean Airlines flight destined for New York. An officer from the Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU) stumbled upon a suitcase which they described as padlocked and it was passed through a scanner, prosecutor Oswald Massiah told the court.
He said that after the scan was done, the ranks discovered a strange object on the screen of the scanner and as a result Welcome was contacted and questioned about the suitcase, which he was made to open. Massiah further stated that after CANU officials opened the suitcase, they discovered a whitish substance, which was said to be cocaine, under a clothes, wrapped and compressed in a black plastic bag within the suitcase.
In addition, Massiah told the court that after ranks questioned Welcome about their findings, he admitted that he was paid $US400 by a man, whose name was not mentioned in court, to take the substance to the United States, telling him that everything was okay. He was then told of the offence, for which he was subsequently arrested and charged.
Welcome pleaded with the magistrate for lenience and understanding in the matter. He noted that because he admitted to the offence and avoided trial, he did not waste the court’s time. Bearing in mind the mitigating circumstances, the magistrate sentenced him to four years imprisonment and fined him $30,000.
